India Smashes A 20-Year-Old Australian Record As They Dominate Down Under With A Follow-On

After rain and bad light forced a complete wash-out of the first session of day four of the fourth and final Border-Gavaskar Cup Test match, it was the second session that saw an early massacre of the Australian batting side which began with Mohammed Shami dismissing Pat Cummins with a ball kept low in his first over of the day. Subsequently, the wickets began to fall like dry leaves in autumn, until Australia were all out making a total of 300 runs giving India a more than comfortable lead of 322 in the first innings. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav's aggression bagged him a five-wicket-haul in his first trip Down Under.

Sydney has been unkind towards the fans of cricket in the past four days as rain and the lack of brightness have hurdled the smooth execution of the fourth Test. This may come as a blessing in disguise for the Australian side and their fans as they face a history-altering defeat at the hands of the Men in Blue, which makes it that much more heart-wrenching for the Indians.

If, in a miraculous feat, Kohli's boys do put up a victory against the Aussies, it would be for the first time ever since India as a nation began to play international cricket back in 1947, that they'd win a Test series on Australian soil. With about a day and a half left to play, especially under dense and dark Sydney clouds, the situation bullied Virat Kohli into taking a 'Do or Die' decision to let Australia take a follow on thereby creating history as he is now the first visiting captain in 20 years, to give the Aussies a follow on, on their home soil.

Previously, Kohli had found himself in a similar situation back in Melbourne during the third Test, where Kohli decided against it. With the idea of giving some breathing time to his over-strained bowlers and also to put up some extra runs to gain a comfortable lead, Kohli commanded his batsmen to go ahead in the second innings and just narrowly missed out on the opportunity to break the 20-year-old Australian record.